Oh, another suggestion. From their description, “Not a trivia buff? It doesn’t matter! In Wits & Wagers, each player writes a guess to a question such as “In what year did the bikini swimsuit makes its first appearance?” or “How many feet wide is an NFL football field?” and places it face-up on the betting mat. Think you know the answer? Bet on your guess. Think you know who the experts are? Bet on their guess. The closest answer — without going over — pays out according to the odds on the betting mat. Strike it big and you’ll be cheering like you just hit the jackpot!”
Code Names is definitely “the” game this year if our travels are a random sample. We’ve seen high school students to senior citizens enjoying themselves with it - different groups, different places all having a blast. Whoever invented it deserves kudos.
My daughter and her friends love to play the Jackbox party pack (I have played a few times also). The games are fun, I think only one person needs to buy the game. You play on your phone or other device. If you don’t like one of the games you can just move on to the next one.
A good one for a group is something called either Mafia or Werewolf. You can find the instructions on line somewhere (you don’t need to buy the game).
Re: Mafia or Werewolf – these are fine, but we find we prefer The Resistance because it doesn’t have player elimination. Just something to consider for those who are interested in this style of social deduction game.
My library had Codenames but it was checked out. I ended up purchasing it and Monikers online. One of my friends is bringing Taboo and we have cards for setback, etc. Plus the Reverse Charades. So I think that’s a good mix. Thanks for all the great suggestions!
It’s not really a 2 person game. Definitely watch the Tabletop episode, and you will get a good feel for it. It is really fun with a big group. We played with a number of different groups this holiday season, all with different ages mixed in and we had a blast every time.
Salad Bowl: I was going to write out the rules, but looked online and found someone saved me from myself. We play this game with 6-8 people (2, 3 or 4 to a team) - it’s fun, funny, not difficult, and a game lasts about 45 minutes depending on the number of players. It’s good for mixed ages as well. No special equipment required. A bowl (or paper bag), some paper and pens.
We inherited that game from a friend but call it Salad Bowl, using a salad bowl, and using any proper noun - could be a location, any person, sports team, etc. Lots of fun and nothing special needed other than strips of paper and things to write with.
eta: oops! posted before reading to the end and seeing I duplicated @JustaMom.
^^^^ Monikers is the store bought version of Salad Bowl!!! the store-bought box has some funny words and sayings that people have to guess. The whole game - either making up your words or playing with the ones provided is fun all the way around.
Chronology is a good game that doesn’t get too intense and allows for some great conversation along the way. The rules are simple, you build a timeline based on dates of events in history. You do that by guessing correctly if it is over / under the dates of events you already have. History buffs will love this and even those that don’t will know enough to do well and walk away having learned a thing or two.
Just a follow up. We purchased Monikers and Codenames. H and I played a round of both to familiarize ourselves with them before game night. We ended up playing Monikers and had a blast. Everyone really enjoyed it. We got Blank Slate from the library and are going to play it tonight with S. Thanks so much to all for the great suggestions!
the rest can watch and cheer.